The Mayor announced Spring 2018 that the city has completed speed surveys on a number of streets and changed the speed limits.
In order to set and enforce speed limits on local streets, the State of California requires a “speed survey” — measuring the average speed of the majority of drivers when the street is uncrowded, road collision history, roadside conditions, residential and business density, and pedestrian and bicyclist safety to best determine an appropriate speed for the street — every 5-10 years. Because many of L.A.’s surveys expired during the recession, LADOT prioritized the updates as a component of its Vision Zero plan.
As a result of these updated speed surveys, the City gained the ability to enforce the speed limit on 825 miles of streets. Enforceable speed limits are now in place on 98.4% of the High Injury Network (HIN), the streets with a higher incidence of severe and fatal collisions. LAPD has reserved $1.5 million in overtime funds to help enforce the new speed limits on the HIN as part of the 2017-18 budget.
In total, 68% of all City Streets now have enforceable speed limits. All streets in the City of Los Angeles are expected to have updated speed surveys by the end of the year.
The new speed limits will be coupled with increased LAPD enforcement efforts across the City as part of the Vision Zero initiative to decrease traffic fatalities.
Changes in South LA are shown in the map above. In the Park Mesa Heights area Vernon, the purple line, has decreased from 35 to 30 mph, as has 54th Street.
The green lines on this map represent an increase from 45 to 50 mph and the orange line is a decrease from 30 to 20 mph. Keep your eye out for the new speeds to be safe.
